Google will use 100 percent renewable energy in 2017

Lucas Mearian |
Dec. 7, 2016

Google now uses more than 2.6 billion watts of wind and solar energy.

Also in September, Microsoft announced plans to power its data centers around the world using 50% renewable energy by 2018. The company also plans to boost its use of renewable power for its data centers to 60% by the early 2020s.

Bloomberg New Energy Finance

Last year, Apple announced it was investing $850 million in a solar power plant through a partnership with First Solar, one of the nation's largest photovoltaic (PV) manufacturers and provider of utility-scale PV plants.

Increasingly, corporations are also pressing governments to change policies to favor the use of renewable energy, which -- depending on the region -- can be less expensive than power from traditional sources such as coal-fired power plants.

Increasing the use of renewable energy has become a targeted goal of almost half of Fortune 500 companies, according to one report. In 2014, more than half of Fortune 100 companies collectively saved $1.1 billion in energy costs by rolling out renewable energy programs.

"Operating our business in an environmentally sustainable way has been a core value from the beginning, and we're always working on new ideas to make sustainability a reality," Hölzle said.